Pitch It - Dev Prasad

'Pitch It' was released before '50 Not Out' and dealt with the same theme - lessons from the cricket dressing room. I remember browsing through the book at a bookstore because we were already into the editing part of '50 Not Out' and after glancing through a few pages I heaved a sigh of relief. Dev's book was aimed more at the corporate boardroom while I was looking at life lessons . Also our formats differed - I looked more at the practice of cricket and the principle behind that practice and how it can be used in life. Dev chose a case study approach from many corporate successes and failures. So though they have a similar base, they are quite different in treatment and what they offer.

'Pitch It' comprises lessons divided into 10 sections - Leadership, Team Building and People Development, Ethics and Values, Execution, Innovation and Change, Know your market, Traits for success, Teamwork, Attitude and Challenges for Success. A cricketing example is followed by a corporate case study. So we discuss players and situations and then businesses and similar situations. From JRD Tata to whom the book is dedicated to, the book covers the biggies of Indian industry (Ambani, Karsanbhai Patel, Ratan Tata, Birlas and more) and their accomplishments and in the same measure it covers all the big situations in cricket in India and abroad.

There are several incidents which have been referred to in both books of course, sometimes in different contexts, so it was interesting to read another perspective. The cricketing and corporate research  is exhaustive and thought provoking.